GOD rescued me. I did not see him but heard his voice.

This is one of the real incidents which happened recently and appalled me. I get dreaded whenever I think of it. Here is what happened. I got a chance to visit a place called Portsmouth in UK as part of my official trip. The place is approx 40 miles from London. The assignment was close to 3 months. Hence my company arranged for a duplex apartment in a place called Southsea for me instead of a typical B&B (Bed and breakfast). The apartment was too comfy for a single person. It had a Bedroom with attached bath and a Kitchen. The 2 rooms were separated. The serviced apartment had 4 such duplex apartments and I was the only person who was staying there. The apartment was opened to me by the property owner and he briefed me about the room heaters, cooking ranges etc. He said that he does not stay here and stays couple of streets away from the street where my apartment was located. He handed over the keys and wished me to have a pleasant stay there and left the place. I just had a look at the surroundings and could notice that there were very few houses nearby. I was so tired that day and had a very deep slumber.

I woke up so early 5 AM (BST) which is 9:30 IST. I had a cup of tea and completed my morning routines and got dressed up to start for the work. I had a hard copy of a map to reach my office and had all the bus routes printed. I pulled out the map which would take me to the nearest bus stop. I walked by following the instructions in the Map. I reached the bust stop and saw the time table which was fixed in the bus stop. There were no direct buses to Fareham(The place where my company is located). I had to get a bus to City centre and from City center to Fareham I had to catch another bus. There were frequent buses from Southsea to City centre. However the frequency of buses from City center to Fareham was less. The bus timings were so accurate that when the clock struck 8:16 AM the bus was in the bus stop. The people boarded into the bus in a Queue. I had to get a pass for the next 3 months for the route. It was around 60 pounds (4,800 INR). The journey was so pleasant which was topped up by the English weather. The max temperature was close to 14 deg cel and during the nights it would be close to 8-9 degrees. I reached office at 9:30 AM and started back to home by 5 PM. I reached city centre by 5:45 PM and it was getting dusk. I spotted a Tesco shop in the city centre and had a huge list of items to buy for cooking. I bought all the vegetables, milk, bread and poultry. I reached the apartment by 6:50 PM. The moment I came in front of the apartment the lights were on. It was something new to me. I was bit scared at that time. The entire place was too dark and calm and suddenly lights glow. I took 2 steps back the lights were off again 2 steps forward the lights were on. Oh my god I was horrified. Then I realized that it was an automatic light which has some sensing mechanism. Almost all the houses in that street had this mechanism. So the guys after reading this blog don’t be scared when you visit UK for the first time.

I opened the door and my god the entire house was too dark. No lights were illuminated and I managed to get some light from my mobile phone. I saw some switches and randomly switched on some switches and could see some lights were turned on. The light was enough to climb the stairs to reach my duplex apartment which was on the first floor. The stairs were made of wood and my own footsteps scared me. I opened my room and went inside and switched on the lights and got freshened up. I went to the dining room and Kitchen. I watched television for sometime and started to get myself prepared for cooking dinner. I was all alone in the apartment and I locked the Kitchen from inside and started to cook. It took 1 hr for me to cook some rice and vegetables. I had my dinner after some time and watched TV for quite sometime. I started to yawn and thought of going to bed. I switched off the TV and inserted the keys into the keyhole of the door which was locked and god you won’t believe the door was not opening. I was trying to twist the keys in all directions and its not opening. The horrendous situation any one could experience on the first day in a new country, place. I was all alone in the apartment no one has occupied the apartment so that I can give a shout. I tried to open the windows and could notice a house 100 mtrs away. Again I need to shout for help to catch someone’s attention. The moment I opened the windows it was freezing cold wind which was gushed inside. My god I closed the door again and unfortunately I did not even have my mobile phone with me. It was on the other room. I was filled with apprehension. Don’t know what to do. Thought for a while and my gut feeling said that the only way I would get out is someone who daily cleans the apartment should open the door for me. But don’t know when he comes daily. What will happen to me till then? What will happen if the room service operated twice in a week? All these questions made me frenzy.

With some hope again I started to open the doors with the key but no luck. Suddenly I heard some footsteps in the stairs. God I was so afraid thinking who it might me. I was trying to open the doors suddenly the footsteps stopped. My heartbeat was 100+ per minute. I heard a very soft and matured voice.. “May I help you.. Are you in some sort of trouble” I narrated the whole story and the man replied “Don’t worry? I will help you. I will go and get the property owner and send him here right away”. I said “Thanks a lot Gentleman”. I again heard the foot steps hopefully he was climbing down the stairs. I again sat on the sofa and started to think whether the gentlemen would take the pain to rescue me. I was so frightened. After 20 mins I again heard the footsteps. I ran towards the door and took my ears close to the door. I heard the voice of the property owner and he said that “Don’t worry gentleman, I will open the door for you.” He had brought the bunch of duplicate keys which, he was trying one by one. Finally the doors opened and I took a deep breath. I thanked him a lot and he also apologized to me since he did not tell me about this fault with the weird lock the previous day. He said that he would fix the issue the next day.

The strange thing was there were no traces of the man who helped me in calling the property owner. Who was that? Was that God? I closed my eyes and prayed god and thanked him. I guess everyone would have experienced such similar incidents. So the moral is don’t ever lock yourself in a room where you are alone. In that case always carry a mobile phone which is charged completely. :-)